Last week I left you at the edge of a cliff, staring out at columns of regulation numbers displayed in the Canada Gazette’s Consolidated Index, and wondering how to access the regulations in their original form. Now I am back to resolve this perilous predicament.

First, back out of the Consolidated Index of Regulations, and return to the Canada Gazette website, any page that displays the Publications menu in the left-hand pane will do. Now look for Part II: Official Regulations. When accessing regulations (unlike the index), you need to select the correct volume, as each legislative document is published only once.

So to find SOR/2006-293, which amended SOR/99-295 in last week’s example, you need to access the Gazette from 2006. The menu only displays the volumes back to 2009 – but that’s ok – click on Part II: Official Regulations. Again, only issues from 2009 to the present are displayed, but a note advises “to view issues of the Canada Gazette, Part II, published between 1998 and 2008, please consult the Archives.”

The archives provide access to all three parts of the Gazette going back to 1998, with a note on how to access Gazettes from 1841 – 1997 at the Library and Archives Canada website. To find the 2006 amending regulation, find ARCHIVED — 2006 under Part II in the table.

Each annual volume of the Gazette contains a number of separate releases organized by date, with the latest date at the top. The regulation number does not provide a precise date, but the separate issues listed each show ranges of SORs (Statutory Orders and Regulations) and SIs (Statutory Instruments) published in the issue. We are looking for SOR/2006-293, so scroll down to the release that contains that number in its range:

The PDF in this case is 192 pages long (pages 1962 to 2141 of Vol.140), and there is a table of contents and index at the bottom – but the easiest way to locate the regulation may be to use the “find” function in your browser by typing CTRL-F, and typing “2006-293” in the search box. SOR/2006-293, the Regulations Amending the Agricultural Marketing Programs Regulations and Repealing the Ranch-raised Fur Pelts Regulations, passed under the Agricultural Marketing Programs Act appears on pages 1967-1975 in the Gazette.